If It Weren’t for that Mercury Conjunction to Pluto….

I already HATE this Mercury retrograde! Normally, I’m one of Merc Rx’s biggest fans. It’s usually one of my best writing periods, since I was born just as Mercury turned around and went direct. It gives me time to catch up and to write some of those neat article ideas scribbled in my notebook. With a longer project like a book in front of me, it’s time for revisions, fact checking, and filling in missing sections. But this time, I am completely and totally blocked.

Not only am I in danger of missing a writing deadline, an absolute no no for me, I am seriously thinking of bailing on a series I proposed to my dear editors at The Mountain Astrologer. I’ve been worried for the last month that it might turn out to be cookbook astrology, and now that I’m partly through the first article, it’s clear that that indeed is what it is. I. DON’T. DO. COOKBOOK!!!!!

(Cookbook is that sort of piece that slogs through all 12 signs, 12 houses, or every bloody possible Pluto transit to some part of the chart. Readers love them; writers hate them. You won’t find cookbook astrology on this blog.)

So, laboring to get that article out, I’d been aware that Mercury was about to go retrograde and maybe save my behind. I picked up the ephemeris this morning.

OY!! Mercury is barely moving and will be within a degree of Pluto in Capricorn at the station. In fact, it’s within a 5° conjunction from December 1st-18th.

THAT’S the problem. The Mercury-Pluto conjunction.

Every Mercury retrograde period is different, depending on what aspects Mercury forms to other planets during its stationary period, because those aspects will last a week or two.

This one I already hate. I do have a Mercury-Pluto semisquare natally, and know exactly what it feels like.

It’s my light-hearted, playful Gemini Mercury wanting to run away screaming from some of the things my potent Pluto wants me to write. Those dark, scary, emotionally intense topics that make my stomach churn and that I know will upset my readers even as the words heal them.

What I’m writing about for TMA isn’t dark and scary; it’s about transits to the Sun from Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. It’s just that it’s cookbook. And my Mercury-Pluto conjunction has the heebie jeebies. Jeez. All I can think of is that there are still a few days until the deadline, and maybe it will lighten up after Mercury gets moving retrograde.

THE GOOD NEWS: Mercury Pluto conjunctions are quite powerful in terms of being able to analyze situations and get to the heart of the problem.

Mercury stationary conjunct Pluto could be extremely productive of insights into long-standing blockages–things we’ve been reluctant to face or have been in denial about. It can also make words powerfully healing OR seriously destructive.

Watch what you say in anger or vengefulness now, folks. These are the words that once spoken can never be taken back.

I’ve written here about the tuning fork quality of transits—the observation that when an aspect forms between two planets in the sky, the people who have that aspect in their birth chart react to it and respond. (It’s like hitting a note with a tuning fork, and that string on an instrument vibrates.)

So, Readers, I’m curious, do any of you have an aspect between Mercury and Pluto in your birth chart? Is this transiting Mercury-Pluto conjunction stirring you up? And how? Tell us about it in the comment section at the bottom of this article.

PSS. Natalie just pointed out in the comment section that Uranus is also stationary now. If you’re experiencing technical difficulties, don’t blame it on Mercury Retrograde and add to the hysteria over that; Uranus is more to blame for computer glitches.

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Responses

I have Mercury and Pluto conjunct in Virgo. Not having any problems so far, but maybe it’s just happier in Virgo than your poor Gemini, especially since the Merc-Pluto in Capricorn is widely trine mine. Lucky break this time.

By the way, did you see Robert Blaschke in TMA saying this Mercury retrograde is entirely benign because it’s a fast one?! 🙂

My Merc/Pluto conjunction has gotten me in trouble, too, but I seem to have a better handle on how to control it now. And in Leo, it could be QUITE dramatic at times. I’m in research mode now. Seems like that is good use for a Merc/Pluto RX.

Good article, Donna. Do I get it that you LIKE to cut to the chase and dispense with fluff, and the Mercury station at Pluto refuses to write cookbook? I.e. You naturally go deep?
Pluto is transiting Capricorn in my first house where natal Mars in Capricorn resides so thie Mercury retro is mixing it up there opposite my loaded seventh house and Natal Mercury, Venus, Uranus, and Jupiter all in Cancer.
Last night I had what appeared to be a moment of clarity about a very negative aspect in my marriage. My husband is a Cancer, Pisces moon, Virgo rising. I tried to overlook this aspect from day one. Together fourteen years and married eleven, I feel that I adapted to his critical tendencies and negative attitude by becoming that way myself. I am now working to change this in myself, regardless of what he does.
Saturday night we went to my sisters to watch a recorded tv show. Nothing worked. Then we tried to watch a movie. No success. Her cable box broke down. After 4 hours of wrestling with her technology issues, we went home.

Thanks for sharing, Kelly. Mercury stationary conjunct Pluto would be extremely productive of insights into long-standing blockages–things we’ve been reluctant to face. I should add that to the post, and will. Donna

Have started counselling for childhood sexual abuse issue yesterday. Have natal Mercury – Pluto inconjunct (part of yod). Pluto is just transiting my 8th house and makes a trigon to Pluto, square to Mercury. So I figure that that date was a good starting point for those sessions, might get that issue finally resolved.

By: annette on December 8, 2010 at 5:26 am

A very powerful use of that transit, annette, brave lady! And, yes, the natal Mercury-Pluto inconjuct would contribute strongly to the family secret/don’t tell suppression. By any chance was Neptune the other leg of the Yod? Even more pressure against speaking out. So talking and maybe even writing about it will be a strong part of the healing process.

If you can get your hands on my book Healing Pluto Problems, I believe the chapters on abuse there would give you some insight from an astrological perspective. There are a few copies in print from RedWheel/Weiser and you might also find a free copy on http://www.Paperbackswap.com. I also woke up wondering if the ebook pirates might have posted a scanned copy on one of those free ebook sites. If so, I want a copy. Donna

Yes, correct guess, the other leg of that yod is neptune indeed. I have had your book about pluto for many years and recently dug it out again. I will read those chapters. So far I always thought that topic has nothing to do with me….How wrong can one be? There were also many deaths around me in the last 3 months during this Pluto in 8 transit, including my mother, that might be another reason for opening up? Also both (sun pisces) parents’ retrograde Pluto is conjunct my mars in cancer in 3. My Pluto conjunct my dad’s moon, mars and neptune. I’d like to learn about faily dynamics seen in synastry charts if you ever fancy a blog (or better many) on that Donna

By: annette on December 8, 2010 at 1:09 pm

Well, part of how people cope with an abuse history is to either deny it really happened or that it had any lasting effect. And part of recovery is that wave after wave of suppressed emotions comes to the surface. It’s good that you have support. Perhaps your mother’d death did open the way for talking about what happened. Donna

Pluto on 6 virgo and Mercury on 1 libra, so no connection there, but the Pluto-Mercury conjunction is opposing natal Mars – in the 8th – so this should be interesting. I am signing a contract on Thursday, but with my usual publisher, so hopefully that will be okay. (I can’t wait until January otherwise no money for Christmas!) But for some reason I contacted my oldest aunt a few weeks ago to get the family history, so during this conj I’ll be digging through skeletons in the closet to see if I can use any of it. One phone call with her, and I realized my memories are a bit fuzzy to say the least. I do not have much of a relationship with my family – this is the 2nd time in 25 yrs I go back – so I have mixed feelings about it. Other relatives are lurking about in the shadows …
On another note: every printer/copier/Mac went haywire at my office today. I thought it was from Uranus going direct again, but must be Mercury.
Good luck on your article, Donna!

Hmm. I didn’t notice that Uranus was stationary too. That’s more likely to create computer/technology problems, so I hope everyone in creation doesn’t use it as another reason to freak out when Mercury goes retrograde. Donna

I am prone to writer’s block too, having Mercury in Taurus conjunct S Node. There’s an ancient Journalistic nickname for guys like me, “Stonecutter,” because they write so slowly that it’s like they were chiseling words in stone.
My worst case was when I was blocked for 2 years, stalling on writing a big article. With some prodding by a writing coach I met, I finally got the article written, and it was my first professionally published article. Made good money on it too.
What she told me is “my normal process for you would be we’d get together with our laptops, and sit side by side while we write for 15 minutes. Then you show me what you wrote.” It was intended to just get me writing for 15 minutes, anything would do, just as long as I was writing. And then I thought to myself, hell, I could sit down for 15 minutes and just write, I don’t need a babysitter to make sure I do it. So I did. And I banged out a good chunk of the article on the first pass.
So when I get stuck, I just make a determination that I will sit down for five minutes and write, just to get the mechanics of writing flowing. If I have to, I’ll just sit down and start like this, “I am sitting at the computer, starting my article. The subject is XYZ and the major theme is…” And then I’m off and running. I won’t even notice when the 5 minutes is up.

Good counsel from a fellow writer, the sitting down to write just anything for 15 minutes. And, in effect, that’s what I did by letting go of the TMA piece and writing this post for the blog instead. It fairly flowed off my fingertips. Hopefully it will help me get back to work on the TMA piece when I get home from Harry Potter and a leisurely lunch. Thanks, Charles! Donna

My last resort for writing block is putting on all Beethoven’s symphonies 1-9 in order. By the time I get number 2 I’m off and running. Taurus Moon in 7th widish trine to Mercury in Capricorn in 3rd?

By: Angi on December 7, 2010 at 2:50 pm

And my Mercury in Capricorn is at 10 degs and a bit wide for a trine with natal Pluto as 0 Virgo so maybe this’ll be a taste of the actual Pluto transit/conjunction in a couple of years time and pull the two together. Interesting.

By: Angi on December 7, 2010 at 2:56 pm

I have a super-tight square between Pluto at 12 Scorpio and Mercury at 12 Aquarius. It’s felt like a breath of fresh air since Uranus directed, but as we head into Mercury retrograde I feel sort of like Pluto is “winning” in the square (Maybe it’s Pluto-Mercury making a sextile to my Pluto). I’ve turned inward to try to do research on alot of things, including taking a crack at Astrocartography. I guess Pluto is kind of like a lead weight- it can sure pull us down, but if you were diving for pearls, it would help you get to the bottom quicker…

Good luck on the TMA article- I love reading your articles both on here and in TMA.

It’s the one pluto aspect I don’t have, and the current transit aspects nothing in my chart (actually it’s opp. my sun-moon midpoint at 4 Cancer, but since I know nothing on midpoints, I’m sticking to ‘it aspects nothing’).
All the same, I feel like killing someone. I canceled a date tonight- I wasn’t sure I’d manage to keep my mouth shut, and my loaded 1st just couldn’t take that risk. I went to the gym instead, sweated some of the restlessness and the irritability out,- “some” being the key word here: the truth is I could barely sit still to read this post.
I thought it was trans. Uranus opp. my natal saturn at 27 virgo (at least tell me that sth great is gonna happen to me when Jup. hits the conjunction to uranus!). But it must be this mercury thing, coz i’ve been thinking about my family alot this last couple of days. Actually, what I was really thinking about was “aspects between the luminaries and lack thereof”-(how’s that for dark and deep?). See, it just hit me that none of my siblings have an aspect formed between their lights. So, the thought was: “Since I’m the one with the messy childhood, how come I get the trine?”. And with this thought I leave you…

Oh, I messed up my data! (which makes me wanna shout: “Mercury is turning Rx, Mercury is turning Rx”!)
So, for standard reporting purposes, I also don’t have a pluto-saturn aspect, and I neglected to mention that I have Scorpio on the cusp of the 3rd, with scorpio planets there- mars end of 2nd, and uranus deep in the 3rd.

Natally, I have Pluto trine Mercury — I’m the one ferreting out all the secrets and analyzing everything to get to the bottom of it. It was also brought to my attention once that I can either wound or heal with one word. I said “ok” but thought nothing of it, until one day, I said ONE little thing that totally annihilated someone. And for the first time, I was conscious of this strange power. So, with Mercury conjunct Pluto, I am minding my words VERY carefully, and making sure I only say aloud the things that will heal!

Good call Donna! I have other transits going on right now, but I can definitely see how the one you’ve mentioned fits right in. My 3rd house Scorpio Mercury is sextile and in mutual reception with my 12th house Pluto in Virgo, and just yesterday, I received a phone call regarding the intestate estate of someone who passed on years ago. Initially, it seemed like good news, but then as more details surfaced, things didn’t add up – it’s a subject I’m very familiar with, having once served as the administrator of an estate. Too soon to tell if it’s a simple case of misguided thinking or something more deliberate, such as someone misusing their authority in determining who should inherit and how. In my chart, natal Pluto (which is conjunct my Ascendant) squares my 9th house retrograde Mars (which is conjunct my Gemini MC), and Mars and Pluto are co-rulers of my 3rd house Mercury (which is conjunct Jupiter/Neptune). Cusp rulers of all of my chart’s angles are affected, so not surprisingly, someone powerful is involved.

The irony is that I stood to benefit (natal Pluto squares Mars, ruler of my 8th/South Node) – at least in the short run. But those who seem legitimately entitled would’ve lost out, so I had to speak up. Not only are there moral issues, but possibly legal ones as well; I did a little legal research yesterday and expect I may have to do a bit more. Transiting Pluto is forming a trine with my natal Pluto and is sextile my natal Mercury/Jupiter/Neptune, so I’m hoping for the best. It would be great to resolve this fairly and amicably.

Come to think of it, I’ve had a much harder time these past few days putting my thoughts into words, and in lightening up. Whereas normally the words pour out of me, I’ve been feeling restrained and self-conscious, kind of weighed down and cautious. I hadn’t realized until tonight just how “blocked” I’ve been feeling. I’ve even been hesitant to offer Reiki to anyone, wondering if Mercury retrograde would affect the flow of energy. I briefly tested it on my husband yesterday, and he did comment that he felt an unusual sensation of cold, whereas normally he feels heat coming from my hands. He said it wasn’t unpleasant, but still I have to wonder.

Retrograde Mercury is moving through my 4th (towards my Saturn), so I plan on paying attention to any unresolved issues that may come up. As I mentioned in my previous comment, I’d already begun to get “stirred up” about something that didn’t seem right to me, and in sharing my reasoning, I may have inadvertently started World War 3. Not because I said anything nasty, but because I dared to say anything at all. Oh well.

My progressed Moon just moved into Capricorn, so part of this probably has to do with me adjusting to this new energy.

No Pluto-Mercury aspects in my chart, but Pluto squared my Mercury by transit a couple of years ago. It was rough. My Mercury is in Pisces and would rather not talk about anything negative. I had to learn that’s not the best way to handle all my communications. Tact, yes; just keeping my mouth shut, no. Life is better now. Right now Pluto/Mercury is transiting quintile to my Neptune – so with Neptune in the picture, I probably won’t know what it means until the transit is over.

mercury and pluto transiting 8th house capricorn….is mars in there too? all these planets moving about, stationing retrograding, going direct…it gets really confusing! the most i can do is try and stay conscious and aware of my state of being and accept whatever that is, then see what happens. merc and pluto are opposing my second house north node – so money issues are definitely up. i’ve also gotten more work in my field which is a total blessing! and i finally started a tarot reading business after a long time of contemplation and it’s growing slowly but surely.

however, right now in this moment money is limited but at the same time i don’t FEEL like it is. in fact i feel quite prosperous. also, there was a death in my family (after a long illness so it was expected) and my boss died suddenly over thanksgiving.

that’s the 8th house right? money, inheritance (i’ve never received anything from my family monetary wise, unfortunately), death, taxes. but maybe i can now see the full development and flowering of my 2nd house north node of making my own money in my career which i would LOVE to do.

i hope this mercury retro period will bring prosperous and fulfilling BREAKTHROUGHS rather than breakdowns for us all.

I have mercury in tauras 12th square Pluto in Leo cusp 4th. But I think this Capricorn might be happening. Dropped in on Cancer woman I had ended things with and went to see Secretariat. She loves horse, she showed me her creative drawings of horses which were good. I dreamt that night of a Tree that had ingeniously a tree house carved into it’s trunk. So creative idea’s. Tree in dream book says “symbolic of the basic structure of our lives”. She has sun in 4th, last years of life are creative. She’s 69. But still couldn’t decide if it’s her or me or both of us sharing this in common. However, Pluto in Capricorn, structure.
I also related to my internet ol friend that it suddenly occured to me our relationship was taboo and always has been. First by my parents and second by his marriage. Suddenly Eve and the apple of my eye entered my thinking. I lean Buddhism. His wife has all this sitting atop her sun and mercury. I don’t sense any great uprisings on her part. Certainly the question of faith and faith’s has come up.
Arabic symbols has “marriage” on the fourth degree.
Thirdly I have some unidentifiable angry man within that leaves my eyes looking bruised some mornings. Yesterday on the buses the bus driver’s and passenger’s were so irrate. One bus driver got so angry at people not moving back he left several people stranded at bus stops and told us objecting, it was our fault. Another supported a semi disabled young woman’s protest at the crowding of her at the front of the bus by the red line. She was kicking at his ass and the bus driver told him he had the manners of a jackass. He just got off saying nothing.

my pleasure ~ Mars transits to my natal Mars just about does me in though, never have learned to handle them properly

By: Tammy on December 7, 2010 at 3:51 pm

What I’ve noticed so far were some very sharp words flying around and your article sheds some light on why might that be happening now.
It might take a while, before I figure out how this Mercury conjunction works for me, but I cannot complain from my natal retrograde Mercury exactly opposing the natal Pluto. It seems like a nice aspect to have or at least it didn’t bother me – I can choose to tell something or not and how to do it, anonymously is a good answer, too 🙂 Maybe the trine to Neptune softens the situation in this case.
What bothers me is whether Uranus or Mercury can influence computers or mostly the people who use them, because I suspect crashes happen, no matter what is retrograde and they happen to some people more often than to others, but I still have no reliable statistic data do prove these.

My 2 degree Sag Mercury squares my 6 degree Virgo Pluto (and 2 Virgo Moon). Besides procrastinating on job search stuff today, I was fine until I read that Elizabeth Edwards died. I had seen the article earlier that she was at the end of her life (the cancer treatments no longer working), but I had expected her to have one more Christmas with her kids and to die next year. When I read tonight that she died today (or did ‘an opt out’ as someone posted on Facebook), it really upset me.

I can’t tell if I’m upset because I had a sister-in-law die of metastatic breast cancer, because I have a friend going through this same thing right now and I know she’s having “one last Christmas” with her 2 teenaged kids or if it’s because I thought it would be after the holidays. After watching a brother-in-law and sister-in-law go through the process of dying from cancer, I know that they had their journey to the other side. It almost seems like Elizabeth Edwards got ‘put down,’ which is upsetting me. Although someone also mentioned on FB that Jackie Kennedy did the same thing.

So I’ve been crying on and off for the past hour for someone I never met. Maybe it’s because as I read her Wiki page what came to me was that what she really opted for was “to death do us part.” Have no clue if my emotional reaction has anything to do with Merc rx … everything in early Capricorn would be trining my early Virgo.

I was quite sad reading about Elizabeth Edwards, too. The whole situation is so disheartening. I was one who really thought John Edwards was a good and upright man, and I would have voted for him over both Obama and Clinton. It was a shock about his affair, and I can only imagine that his betrayal set her up for the cancer. Donna

I have Mercury conjunct Pluto on the IC (in Libra). I love it- I feel like I have x-ray vision, or that I’m a detective in an old film noir flick. Being on the IC has, for me, turned out to be a giant process of articulating hidden inner stuff. Midnight, baby.

You’ve gotten other writerly advices further up, so I’m just here to commiserate… I finally got whatever it was unstuck, so I hope your movie-and-lunch recipe does the trick for you.

I find it’s interesting that you refuse to write “cookbooks”, even though you admit “Readers love them”. Afterall, isn’t the purpose of writing is for the benefit of the reader as well as for your own gratification?

Well, Mary, enough readers seem to have gained enough growth and healing from my writings on psychological matters over the years and enjoyed them enough that writing what pleases both me and my readers seems to working just fine.

Guilt trips don’t really work on me–they’re just attempts to manipulate people into doing what the guiltor wants. Donna

Natally, I’ve got Mercury in Scorpio in the 3rd house squared by Pluto in Leo in the 12th house. I do get writers block…but once I actually start, I’m usually good to go. I’m not feeling anything yet…I’ll watch to see what happens. The Mercury retrograde and Pluto transit is conjunct my natal Mars and trine my Ascendant. Um…

Ack, well maybe I shouldn’t get that Stellate Ganglion nerve block I was offered by my Pain MD ? He suggested it on a lovely Grand Trine day for me, before I looked at the upcoming stations, eclipses etc, and so I said *Sure, why not ? , (while I was thinking, stellate is a lovely word..)* It just may not be the time to reboot my sympathetic nerves. Well, it is up to my insurance and given that Neptune is opposing my Natal Pluto, maybe they will say no ?

My natal Mercury in Scorpio makes a wide Square to Pluto in Leo, I think it is out of orb, and so I am not factoring it in. Maybe I should ?

So it should be no surprise that the conjunction will be exact in the very end of my 6th house.

And lately, for reasons unknown, I have been fantasizing that I suffer from Selective Mutism. It saved Turkey Day. I just keep pretending I can’t talk. (I am pretty sure that is my Neptune on the Sun talking…) Maybe I intuited the available energy ?

Good luck with the deadline. I am sure Mars moving into Capricorn will help. 🙂

After quite a period of mental dispersion i feel enabled to sort my priorities without much given tought. I’m ‘in the things face’ on the eye level, fearless is the degree of my everyday worries. Quite an emproovement for a Pisces Moon type. Not to mention that i have Venus cj Mars in the same sign too, i’m a mood swinger and with Pluto on AC, devil the one who beats the drums.

I’m blessed with the insight that the emotional body dosnt return wisdom without guidance and supervision, rather, the helpless child syndrome. Fast food psychology “you cant control your emotions, only the way you express them” mantra do tend to exclude quite of the bigger picture . . As i see it now, emotions are like selfwriten programs and tent to execute themselfs within a short span deadline. Soon enough this way programmed behavior tend to compromise the individual on a long therm basis. If you wish, i’ll rephrase, will, to make your life dream come true, you have to be in control of yourself, what primarly mean of your emotionality. It’s not an easy task, but it’s not impossible. The only thing you must know is the real price of it. So, for me this Plutonian Mercury seems to be a blessing.

By transition the Pluto/Mercury cj is positioned over my natal Neptune in the 3d. And there is where i really had to come on therms. I’m just painfully emotional, a 360dgre empath that do not only pick moods from others but eaven their thoughts as they think ! Yeah, sounds crazy and you would not immagine how much junk you soak that way, not to mention you do not quite enjoy their company A pitty.

My Capricorn Mercury enables me to manage my analytical processes separatedly and behave myself accordingly, but that dosnt bring to the release of emotional preassure, not the last. While having that Piscean sense of unity and wholeness drive, it can be quite a problem. It rather just pile the pain up like bricks. Now, i’ve come to resort to that, practicing to be as mindeless as possible, quite an ancient praxis but spontaneous in my case. The positive side of it is that prevents you from loosing tons of energy that else would be spent in unproductive selfanalysis, instead, regenerate oneself. The short side falls over the worldly aspects of life. I think this energetic thriftiness has something to do with Saturn approaching my natal AC 🙂 Finally, i feel like own it back =:)

I have Mercury(Aquarius) in the 3rd opposite Pluto (Leo) in the 9th squaring Saturn in Scorpio in the 12th!and I frequently can experience writers block. I write music, lyrics and am moving into blogging. Funny enough, I f I get stuck, I write best when driving (3rd house.. short jouneys) so i carry a voice recorder in my purse just in case I get some ideas and then bang them out later on my laptop. I have experienced some housemates speaking very abruptly and harshly and projecting dissaproval onto me and I have concluded the best way thru these next 2 weeks is to remain quiet 🙂 hope I can pull it off! I just keep remembering… “Watch what you say in anger or vengefulness now, folks. These are the words that once spoken can never be taken back. ” Thanks for the sound advice!!!

Yeah, this is one beautiful way to keep ones inspirations in check ! Several frends of mine have spoken about the same flow of inspiration when driving. From the psychological standpoint, it would be about a repetitive kind of activity that enables the individual to relax enough while been active, what gives fuel to the right side of the brain and it’s playfulness 🙂

I strongly incite for this technique cose i’ve tested it personally and it has prooven worth ! With an open mind to find the best medium to record our thoughts, be it a profi voice recorder, which btw allmost every mobilephone has incorporated by now, some mp3 too, a notebook and a pen by you bed for latenight rush’s of inspiration, i personally use my mobilephone to write down things allot, whatever suit our needs best ! The point is, things must be writen dow, cose if we forget them, they are gone. They estimated, we have nearly 10 000 thoughts pro day, who can rememmber it all ?!

Mercury is Stationing exactly trine my Sun. Guess I will have some strong words for someone. Or a powerful realization. Waiting for Mars to activate the transit- before it does it will oppose my MC at zero degrees Cancer. Need to find work badly. Hoping this will bring a major transformation. My DVD player died yesterday. Time to stop watching movies I guess and get going.

With all due respect, I think Blaschke is way off. So focused on Mercury he’s unable to see the forest for the trees. Maybe that is what this particular Retro period is all about. Things will go awry when we become too focused on minutiae?

I don’t have a Natal Mercury/Pluto aspect. But this little transiting bugger is sure giving me a fit. And glory f’ing hallelujah, Moon is joining it today with Mars creeping into the mix a bit later this month.
This aspect is starting to become near to conjunct my IC, which opposes my Natal Uranus/Moon. All hell has broken loose in my domestic world in the last two days or so.
My half-sister accused me of hacking her FaceBook page (absurd!) and has threatened legal action against me. My housemate chose to start an argument about finances as I was leaving for work and got very nasty about it to boot. His family’s finances and situation are in a hot mess and it affects our living situation.
And that’s just the start….Arrrrrrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh!

I omitted, nataly i have Mercury(3d) Pluto(1st) quintile situation, with Pluto squaring the Sun and trine Moon.

A word about Uranus, when did he exsactly gone retro ? My laptop broke on me 2 weeks ago ! When does he go direct again/can expect the reparation of it ? It was buyed in another country so, it’s quite a process to get things done.

Again, i have Uranus in the 3d. In the meantime i moved to a home PC station that did have complications of it’s own, like to buy new speakers for as they were missing. I tend to die without music :o) Electromagnetic cluster in 3d – check so far, now i only have to expect the nuclear side of the reaction :))

Thnx for the info Donna, i know i’m been a lazy bum but luckyly you’re updated 😀

How was the movie ? Is it Plutonian enough ? 😀 I’m a big fan of the Rowling saga, more of the books but i’m looking up to the last movie too 🙂

About the deadline, dont freak out, i think creative blockages allways signalize fatigue of some kind. So, you know what you’re up to 😉
@Merrily advice on typing inspiration in motion seems like a sound advice to me, i dont quite understand why people find themself only able to put things down when bottom-sticked to some surface. Creativity has it free flow, you never know when it’ll jump on you, and from quite some time i’ve token Julia Cameron’s advice ( http://www.theartistsway.com/ ) to the heart : “Whenever, wherever, you have to write things down, no mather how the idea was good, if you’ve forgeted it, it’s gone”. :o)

I believe it’ll all be allright 🙂

Love,
Sha

By: Sha on December 7, 2010 at 7:52 pm

Loved the movie, just right for a Mercury/Pluto day. I didn’t find it too dark–actually Criminal Minds has gotten so dark it surpasses anything Volodemort could do. Donna

Well, I’ve got Merc (Rx) conjunct Pluto, but at 23/24 Libra, so the current aspect (in my natal 10th) is a little out of reach for me. That Pluto is currently quintile a few planets (Merc, Jup, Pluto), moving out of a trine with Mars, and moving to sextile my Asc. I must say since I moved about 3,000 miles west things have been very good for me, a lot of lucky breaks and meetings, which is soooo different from the rest of my 29 years, feeling like no matter what I did I would be screwed time and time again. Saturn just conjuncted my Saturn though a couple of days ago so that is probably reaping some rewards for me, for the things I did work for in the past. I just hope any things that I get right now will come through for me- buying a car this week- got an INSANE deal from my roommate, who is too lazy and too nice to sell it elsewhere for more.

Hi, Dizzy, over the years I’ve noted that people like yourself who have Mercury Retrograde natally seem to do well under Mercury Retrograde by transit. They buy cars, take on new jobs, rent apartments, and all kinds of other things we’re not “supposed to do” and it usually works for them. Donna

Yes, I recall you saying this before! It makes me think that I’m not quite so crazy, bucking the typical astro trend that books tell me I’m supposed to experience.

PS- I hope your writer’s block clears up soon!

By: Dizzy on December 8, 2010 at 12:23 am

Hi Diz – I have Mercury Rx too. in tauras. but gemini rising so watch out. Uranus on the asc.
I’m past 60 now so two saturn returns. The first one I didn’t notice much, well I got divorced and moved North BC with my kids and brother’s family, mom and dad. It was the 70’s and we did a communal back to the land thing. It was tough.
The second saturn return was a consolidating one. It felt like I had the last piece of the puzzle and now I could put it all together comprehensively. Almost right after the 70’s divorce, cause I hated my work situation, I bought a meditation book and shortly thereafter met a yoga teacher, and the rest is history. I never thought I was on track, didn’t have a clue but suddenly it all came together. Lots of struggles and heartbreaks beforehand though. When saturn ruling capricorn my 8th house hit my venus tauras I inherited $ from an Uncle in a mental institution all his life. I’d never met him. Never worked for that. That I’m aware of. Not this lifetime and 8 other people benefited too. How does that work! Go figure. So never give up although you sound very positive. Nemeste. salute….

Thanks for this piece, Donna.
I wish I had know about this 2 days ago though! I have already discovered what I thought was a secret, felt slighted and shot off a cutting reprimand. (Very unlike me – my libra moon is normally very careful about what I put out there and how I handle confrontation). Now I think I was mistaken and I can’t take back that comment. Whether or not it was true or not remains to be seen, but I have a sinking feeling that I was wrong.

I will be very careful what I say from now on.

I have natal mercury gemini in the 10th square pluto virgo in the 2nd.

Wow !! Seems like everybody has natal Mercury/Pluto aspects here !
My natal Mercury in scorpio makes no aspects to Pluto but he is conjunct to the MC so I guess it makes it strong in my chart.
And this actual Mercury/Pluto conjunction sits right on my NNode squaring my natal Pluto and opposing my natal Saturn so it is pretty scary to me !! And at the same time I am expecting big things to happen…
Though my natal mercury is not Rx natally, it became Rx a few days after I was born so I have lived my entire adult life with Mercury Rx by progression. And I never really feel bad during these Rx periods. That’s why I didn’t understand what happened as my Tv is almost dead and since yesterday my very much loved Mac is dying in front of my eyes. Now I understand that it might be this Uranus stationary right on my moon(arrrgg ! ) in the 2nd. Maybe he is telling me to quit wandering on astro blogs and get out find a new job !! Which I have been unable to do for the past few weeks, months ?? Interesting anyway.

Great question………to reiterate my retro mercury score was 46 in the 11th house and and Pluto score was 61 in the 10th house , both in Leo. Their midpoint is 17 Leo which opposes my 17 moon in Aquarius in the 5th house and this opposition squares the nodes of mercury at 17 Taurus/ Scorpio. Progressed mercury is in Scorpio. This is an aspect where thought takes form and one must really watch what they say and think.
#1 Situation
When transit Neptune opposed my natal Pluto I inherited my first grand daughter and have been raising her since birth. She is 8 now . I consider her a great blessing. Now the same son has had two more girls, one is 1 1/2 years old and the other is 3 months. His girlfriend has been sentenced to 9 months in the workhouse ( different mother than my first grand daughter) . They have never lived together.

He is in his 3rd year of college and just before Turkey Day she dropped off the 1 1/2 yr old on him. He wanted the child. But it is a struggle for him and he is changing diapers for the first time. He expects he will get the infant as well, when the mother goes to the work house in Feb. The transiting Capricorn retro Mercury. and Pluto are square my natal Neptune. Transit Neptune / Chiron are opposing my natal retro mercury.

My son is starting to feel the restrictions in a 24/ 7 situation of raising a small child. He already asked me if I could come down to the cities to help babysit! I am adamant that I shall raise no other grand children . My first Grand daughter has natal Pluto in the 3rd house opposition Saturn and both straddle her lunar nodes. I will NOT jeopardize her with siblings. They can visit short term but not up close and personal.
My 1st Grand Daughter has 5 half siblings back east who want to meet her and may visit next simmer. I enjoy this grand daughter. Astrologically we were made for each other. Both heavy on the Air signs. The second two are Taurus and Virgo girls. the same signs as my two sons. The Taurus father I believe must grow up and take responsibility for his actions….so I will NOT be running to the rescue this time.

Situation # 2:The Taurus son is my youngest and there are 12 years between he and his older Virgo brother. When the Taurus son was 7 months old I had a powerful vision of the future in our area. 7 years after this vision ( I wrote it off as something bad I must have eaten) I met the woman in the vision. She was distinct looking, straight white blond hair, intense blue eyes. Spends a lot of time in the BWCA , a 6 million acre wilderness preserve consisting of islands and lakes. I knew no one who looked like her at the time of the vision. Upon meeting her I could NOT forget the vision. Over the years all the pieces have moved into place. A great land movement of the southern edge of the Canadian Shield is due ; especially if they persist in going ahead with mining plans that could pollute this great watershed. It is the LAST home for wolf packs left in the lower 48 States. It is a sacred area. Our family ( paternal side) is the last Indians left with land holdings in the middle of it. I saw our Lake, 40 miles long; disappear!

The Pluto Capricorn transit nears my south node and then will bottom out with the Uranus/Jupiter square. I am preparing to move just ahead of this transit. Perhaps the retro mercury will give me the time to re work my plans. These plans include taking Ojibwe Indian foster girls and teaching our Traditional hereditary survival skills besides pertinent things from other cultures. I do NOT see transient foster girls as siblings of my grand daughter. Do you agree? Is Neptune fogging my glasses?

Barehand, you must trust your own inner vision on this question–that faculty has never let you down in the past, and I know it won’t now. It’s just that with Mercury barely moving and conjunct Pluto the process of revelation will take time and digging deeply. Perhaps there are some secrets yet to be revealed, too. Donna

Thanks for the reply Donna.
On another note I forgot to mention that I have an older half brother from my mother who was adopted out. I recently heard he was very ill , at the Mayo Clinic, with stomach cancer . I have three younger half siblings from my Father and I recently heard the youngest son was in the hospital with a ruptured appendix and not looking good as other complications have set in. His older brother passed away just after I received my first grand daughter.
They were both born on June 18th, different years.
The Mercury/ Pluto transit is in my 3rd house of siblings.
A cousin and Aunt have also recently passed away.

By: Barehand on December 9, 2010 at 5:55 am

No real aspect from my Mercury to Pluto (too wide to be a real square, although by signs, yes), but the current conjuction is on my fourth house cusp and opposing my Mars. Two women in my office are trying to antagonize me by sending nasty emails to me and my boss, but my boss doesn’t want to be bothered, and I refuse to be baited by them. Looks like I am handling the transit just fine, LOL!

Hello,
The mercury/pluto conjunction is forming an opposition to my natal cancer moon in in my 2nd house, a square to my natal mercury in Aries, and semi-square to neptune in the 7th house and sesquiquadrate to natal jupiter in 1st house/Taurus. What does it all mean? May take me sometime to figure it all out with help from Donna’s article and other people’s postings.

But I can tell you last weekend, I finally began to take my writing over the last few years to start a healing/spirituality blog. The moment I started I got a viscous virus that totally disabled my computer. I went to one of those computer sites where technicians walk you through the fix, but i’m still waiting for assistance, as hey are backed logged. I have been able to save everything on a backup drive. I also made a purchase for a used book on amazon.com for a 1 cent book and can’t get the charge to go through. i have paid my credit cards.

The next day, I got a nasty fever, body pains and some coughing. I’ve been doing healing and clearing my chakra’s and aura everyday and finally today feeling a little bit better. I often use flower remedies, light bearing stones and all the elements in nature for healing. I literally have 100’s of bottles of flower essences. I usually just connect to the frequencies but find the one I need and doing muscle testing is a task right now. So I just go into meditation and call on the frequencies/healing elements that would be best for me. As I started to do this I noticed my body starting to wiggle and realized that the fever is related to some clearing of old energy and the wiggling is some minor kundalini energy rising. I don’t play with this energy but at times during my healing process it just comes up when the body needs clearing.

The mercury/pluto square neptune thing has me in foggy land so I threw my hands up and put everything away. Put away my computer, stopped writing, stopped reading and have just been healing, meditating, sleeping and watching Xmas movies on TV. Ok, I get the hint universe. So much for well thought out plans. Time to backoff and lay low. The ego doesn’t take well to a higher intellegence’s game plan.:)

Hope the writing is better now! Mercury and pluto are not related at all in my chart. But the transit is my 4th house now and squaring my moon/pluto. So far has being actually good, I’ve being decluttering my home and some of my thoughts and emotions, somewhat enjoying simpler things. Is interesting that a distant cousin contacted me because needed info to complete a family tree she’s being working on for years. So I was correcting and completing some of the data.
Let’s see how the whole thing goes after friday, but I’m usually no too freaked out by mercury rx either, my mercury has just turned direct like yours and I was never completely sure, but according to Astrodienst is direct.
p.s I ve found shopping particularly irritating! can this transit affect that?

For a few monhs now I’ve been having a transiting Pluto conj my natal Merc in Cap, 6th house. This is quite a strong influence, since I have Mars, Jupiter and Saturn in Virgo, 3rd house. I have been feeling very obsessive on many little things, carefully observing other people’s behaviour as well as my own, getting to the bottom of everyone’s motivations, etc etc… Sometimes my mind gets fixed on a subject and until I find some sort of “answer” to feed this Plutonic urge for “deeper meaning”… well, it’s been mentally and emotionally exhausting. “Obsessive thinking” is an understatement!! But of course this transit helps to get in touch with emotional stuff that has been burried for a very long time, right? (Leo moons tend to be glass-half-full kind of people 😉 So maybe the Merc-Pluto conj in the current sky brings some of this “obsessive thinking”, specially if it aspects any of the personal planets in the natal chart.

What if we add the Lunar Eclipse accent to the meaning of this Retrograde period?

From its conjunction with Pluto, T Mercury Rx will be at 26 Sagittarius opposed the Dec. 21 Lunar Eclipse at 29 Gemini. Mercury will turn direct on December 30 and contact the eclipse degree on January 13.

I don’t have a natal Pluto-Mercury aspect (not the kind I pay attention to, anyway) but I am working on two writing projects at 25 Gemini. They have been incorrigible; it’s dreadfully slow-going. Call me a wishful thinker, but, with this transiting emphasis, I’m hoping progress will be more apparent to me in the New Year.

Donna, I was introduced to your work by Joyce Mason, in conjunction with her series of quizzes on her blog about the outer planets. Turns out I’m a pretty much off-the-chart “PUNC”- Pluto-Uranus-Neptune-Chiron, so I decided to check out “Healing Pluto Problems.”

Wow! is all I can say. And a million intense Plutonian thank yous to you for writing this book. While I don’t have Mercury conjunct Pluto natally, the Mercury-Pluto conjunction landed right on my 4 Cap Midheaven the other day. Initially, this brought an amazing sense of calm and clarity. Now, a few days later, I’m recovering from a major trigger that I imagine is one of these healing ‘gifts’ that totally sucks now but ultimately is good. Long story short, my apt manager asked if I wanted to sign a letter to our building owners about a tenant who’s been doing all kinds of bizarre and anti-social things, like going to get the mail in his underwear. Way creepy. I hadn’t realized the extent of his creepy actions and found myself reliving the old trauma of serious creepiness in the ‘house,’ meaning that the guy lives downstairs.

I was amazed at the intensity of the old stuff that came up from my childhood and later years related to my unstable and vicious brother. Waves of terror have been released and in addition to reaching out for help, your book has been so helpful in giving me perspective. I’ve not read any other book that captures the truth of my story so well. I’ve studied astrology for years, but I’m still incredulous when I read about the various aspects of my family life that you nailed just from these Plutonian parts of my chart.

I’m still making my way through it – I can only read a chunk at a time since it’s so intense and tends to bring up so much. I’m also experiencing my Chiron return, so it’s been a rather exhausting period of facing stuff to be healed. I’m amazed by how much energy all this ‘re-tooling’ takes. It’s quite painful and your book has helped me to not feel alone. Thankfully, I have connected with a few people who are comfortable with Plutonian intensity and anger and hatred and grief and all. But you helped me heal and understand a lot about what happened after my mom died 2 years ago, when so many people I’d thought were friends either didn’t want to hear about it or were completely clueless about how to help me.

Ah, Grace. It’s so very strange that you wrote this to me today. The very next thing I was going to do this morning after checking this blog and my emails was to work on my advice column for Dell Magazine. And to tackle the letter someone wrote to the column saying she was looking for information on astrological signatures of sexual abuse–which is one of the major chapters in Healing Pluto Problems. And I intended to say how sorry I was that I wrote that chapter because of the stories I’ve heard over the years about people misusing that information.

(Like the creepy guy who gets off on cornering women at astrology conferences, looking at their charts, and saying they were molested as children, going after details. Then if they say it’s not true, he insists that they were, they’ve just repressed it. I’d like to get ahold of him someday!)

So, apparently God sent you to me today to remind me of all the people who’ve told me stories like yours about how much that book helped then heal.

You’re very brave to confront all that you are. Stay with it, but don’t do it alone. Get support from counselors, self-help groups, flower essences, GENTLE noninstrusive body work–whatever it takes. The waves of emotions you describe are typical, they last for a number of weeks, but releasing what has been suppressed for so long will be a great healing. Donna

It was a key resource for me when I was focussing on healing from childhood sexual abuse in the 90s – gave me hope that change and recovery was possible. Introduced me to flower essences too. Thank you. Life is fab these days.

By: Angi on December 21, 2010 at 11:25 am

Thank you, Angi. Just having a moment of self-doubt. Glad it was there for you. Donna

Donna, do not be sorry for writing that chapter, if few people misuse it (as they will probably then do with most astrological info available which can be misused), what does it matter compared with the thousands it has helped? They would all miss out on such a valuable and important piece of help and information. I feel we rather need more info not less so more people can be helped much earlier. Anyway, thanks for all the good work you are doing….

By: annette on December 22, 2010 at 4:02 am

Donna, Your “Healing Pluto Problems” also helped me. I was not physically sexually abused but my dad crossed many psychological boundaries. He acted more like we were male buddies or he was my adolescent boyfriend than a dad most of the time. I have Pluto conjunct Sun in the same degree of Leo in 11. Pluto rules mu 2nd House.

By: MEL0810 on September 23, 2016 at 7:24 pm

Good to hear from you again, Melo. I’m glad you found Healing Pluto Problems helpful. Donna

Transit Mercury Venus Pluto in Capricorn conjunct MC.
Trans Mercury trines Pluto. Trans Jupiter and NNode is conjunct Pluto/Uranus too. – Figures why Ive been reading and thinking so much in silence and also decided to chime in. Been having heavy profound thoughts, my mind won’t quit since Mercury direct! My thoughts have been on philosophy, psychiatry, modern lifestyles, morals, society all that and how I fit in, what I’m doing or could do. Thoughts of past to present, who I am..yada yada yada. .As soon as Mercury went direct, I felt like my mind expanded, suddenly I knew more than I ever thought before and seems like pieces are falling together in my mind naturally for once. I can know the answer or know where to look. Im blown away…. Its so strange and interesting, nebulous, fascinating and a bit haunting. I cant keep up to write it all but what I can I am, it comes in waves. Doing my best to pay attention to find a way to benefit while it lasts. Plus adding Neptune and Jupiter Is why its this intense? So much happening on my chart hitting all my personal planets too.. Am I coming or going? When I do come back to reality,? Doing everything to get my attention and I hear them loud and clear! LoL

I have Mercury Direct in Virgo conjunction Saturn in 12, both semi-sextile Pluto conjunct the Sun in Leo in 11. Lately, I have been more direct and matter of fact than usual, especially concerning business relations and people who give me problems. But I have tried to temper the directness with tact and kindness.
Been having very strange dreams.